The Curator
The Curator is an Arcane Guardian boss in the Menagerie in Karazhan. It is not optional. Raids wanting to reach the bosses behind it must first defeat The Curator. The encounter is not difficult to learn, but requires good gear. A raid able to defeat this boss is in principle equipped well enough to defeat all the following bosses, save perhaps Nightbane and Prince Malchezaar. Abilities *About 660,000 HP, high armor *Immune to arcane spells (INCLUDING starfire), bleed and poison effects, and mana drain spells. *'Basic Melee': Around 3000 on a tank *Summons Astral Flares http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=17096 with 12000 health. These use Arcing Sear, a rapid-fire chained attack which hits up to three characters within ten yards for 675-825 arcane damage each. Flares can be tanked, but are immune to taunts, stuns and snares. They take normal damage from all attacks. *'Hateful Bolt' http://www.thottbot.com/?sp=30383 - An arcane bolt that hits a non-tank player character for 4435-5999 Arcane damage. *'Evocation' - When the Curator runs out of mana, it ceases all attacks and evocates for 20 seconds to restore its mana to full. Attacks on The Curator cause 200% extra (triple) damage during this time. *'Enrage' - At 15% melee damage and Hateful Bolt rate both are increased slightly and no more Astral Flares or Evocates occur. *'Berserk' - After 10 minutes it goes berserk, giving all raid members an unremovable debuff which increases arcane damage taken by 500%. Strategy Killing the Curator is basically a gear check. It's not a coincidence that this boss drops the first class set tokens - they really want to be earned. There's not much strategy or room for fancy maneuvers - either the raid has the required DPS and the necessary mana endurance, or it has not. The fight consists of four possible phases. Most of the fight consists of two alternating phases: a Flare Phase (which lasts 100 seconds) followed by an Evocation Phase (which lasts 20 seconds). Once the Curator's health drops below 15% it enters the Enrage phase, when it stops summoning Flares and Evocating, but melees and casts Hateful Bolts more rapidly. If it is still alive ten minutes after the pull, it enters the Berserk phase and wipes the raid in a few seconds. Flare phase During the Flare Phase, The Curator summons Astral Flares, hits the tank with moderate melee damage and casts Hateful Bolts. The Curator summons one Astral Flare every 10 seconds, at a cost of 10% of its mana. Each Flare is born with about 1000 threat on a random, non-tank player character and starts advancing in that player's direction. It deals out Arcing Sear (a chain-lightning-like attack) on up to three players in its vicinity for about 750 arcane damage per target per second. Tanking the Flares is possible, but not necessary. Each Flare must be destroyed within 10 seconds, before the next one spawns. Failure to do so will result in multiple Flares dealing damage at the same time - this situation will usually mean a wipe. It is not necessary to damage the Curator at all during this phase. Damaging the Curator is permissible, but only when no Flares are up (unless the raid has excess DPS: see Positioning below). This cannot be over-emphasized: By far, the most important part of the fight is killing the Astral Flares as quickly as possible. Wipes on Curator usually happen because the healers run out of mana. They run out of mana because the Flares are alive too long. The solution is almost always to kill the Flares faster. If each Flare dies in seven seconds instead of ten, the healers will find their jobs to be much easier. The Curator continuously deals moderate melee damage against the tank, requiring standard healing. The Curator casts a Hateful Bolt every 10 to 15 seconds on a non-tank player character. The current best theory is that the Hateful Bolt hits the non-tank character that has generated the most threat on The Curator since the last Evocation and currently has enough health to survive the damage from the Bolt. It is possible to assign one character - preferably a warlock or a shadow priest - as Hateful Bolt soaker. This character attracts most of the Hateful Bolts by steadily damaging The Curator. Equipping the soaker with arcane resistance gear negates a substantial amount of the damage from the Hateful Bolts. Note that using a soaker is reasonable only when the raid is still able to kill the Flares fast enough. It's typically done when using only two healers. Evocation phase Immediately after The Curator summons the tenth Astral Flare with the last of its mana, it enters a state of Evocation for 20 seconds while it refills its mana. While it does so, it goes completely inactive and all damage dealt against it is tripled. The raid must first concentrate on killing the tenth and last Flare before switching damage over to the Curator. Otherwise, there may be two Flares up after the Evocation, which is bad (see above). Killing the Flare quickly also grants the healers a few seconds break for mana regeneration. Cooldown and single-use abilities that temporarily increase damage output should be saved up for this moment and be activated at the beginning of the phase to quickly kill the last Astral Flare and to make the most out of the Curator's temporary vulnerability. Once the Curator has finished refilling mana, the fight continues with the next Flare Phase (or the Enrage Phase, if its health is brought down below 15% during the Evocation). Enrage phase Once The Curator's health drops below 15%, it stops summoning Astral Flares, ceases new Evocations, and increases melee damage output and Hateful Bolt frequency. This means that the healers have to give the main tank and Hateful Bolt victims more attention while everyone else just nukes The Curator. This phase is actually the easiest part of the fight. Positioning Positioning is a secondary concern, but it can help raids with marginal gear. A concentrated setup increases damage on the Flares by eliminating the need for melee damage-dealers to chase down Flares. A distributed setup reduces damage from the Flares by reducing the chaining of Arcing Sear. Concentrated If melee damage dealers are needed on the Flares, everybody except the hunters sets up close together, with the hunters as close as possible, just at their minimum range. The main tank is on one side of The Curator, and everybody else is on top of each other on its back (within melee range). This makes it easy for the melee characters to damage the Flares and quickly switch to The Curator when no Flares are up. The drawback of this method is that the Flare damage is maximized. This is offset to some extent because multi-target heal spells like Chain Heal also have their maximum effect. Distributed If the raid's ranged DPS is high enough to kill the Flares quickly (in less than eight seconds) without support from the melee characters, the melee group sets up close to The Curator and stays put. The ranged damage dealers and healers spread out and each stays at least ten yards away from everybody else. This significantly reduces Flare damage, because Arcing Sear doesn't jump farther than ten yards. Also, the melee group is on the Curator all the time, which shortens the fight. If melee characters have to help killing Flares, the distributed setup does not work well. Even a single melee damage dealer chasing Flares breaks the ten yard pattern, and thus the Flare damage is maximized anyways. Because of this, a concentrated setup is best for most raids new to this encounter. Miscellaneous Tips * For most problems on The Curator, the solution is to kill the Flares faster. If that doesn't work, the best solution is usually to come back later with better gear, specs, and more consumables. Underpowered raids simply cannot win this fight. * When The Curator starts evocating, some DPS meter chasers may be tempted to cheat by attacking The Curator before the last Flare is dead. This can and does lead to wipes in marginal raids. Watch out for cheaters and stop them. * The Flares will spawn either to the left or right of the Curator in a pattern. Learn the pattern to pick them up faster. * If there are multiple hunters, they should spread out from each other. This avoids more than one being forced into melee combat if an Astral Flare comes their way. Feign death and (manually cast) Growl can keep the Flares at range. * While it's tempting to use arcane resistance gear, it slows down Flare-killing. It's somewhat useful on the tank and any Hateful Bolt soaker (if there is one), but generally harmful on other characters. * Astral Flares do not live long enough for damage-over-time spells to be effective. Warlocks should use Searing Pain or Shadow Bolt instead. * Using a Cauldron of Major Arcane Protection gives the healers a break at the start of the fight. * The following simple macro is handy to help damage-dealers target live Astral Flares quickly: /cleartarget /target Astral Flare /stopmacro harm /target The Curator * Multi-target heals are very effective, especially Chain Heal and Prayer of Mending. * Warlocks can cast Curse of Doom on the Curator somewhere between the summoning of the fourth and sixth Astral Flares(55-59 seconds till Evocation if you have a timing mod). It's best to time it such that it goes off right at the start of the Evocation, so that it can be replaced by Curse of Elements when the Mages start to deal damage. * Mana is an issue in this fight. Make sure everyone has enough mana potions and mana regeneration consumables. * Threat is not an issue in this fight. Use buffs or totems that facilitate quick Flare-killing. Don't use buffs like Salvation that reduce threat. * Shamans should use their Bloodlust or Heroism during the eighth Flare. *The fight can be reset by running down the last stairs before the room. Quotes ;Aggro :The Menagerie is for guests only. ;Adds Spawn :This curator is equipped for gallery protection. :Gallery rules will be strictly enforced. ;Evocate :Your request cannot be processed. ;Enrage :Failure to comply will result in offensive action. ;Player death :You are not a guest. :Do not touch the displays. ;Death :Curator is no longer op... er... ation... al. Loot Patches and Hotfixes External links Concentrated setup from the Hunter perspective: Distributed setup videos: Category:Arcane Guardians Category:Bosses Category:Instance:Karazhan Category:Unique Voice